President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday evening is expected to touch on immigration, rising inequality, and the economic recovery, but energy issues such as energy security and climate change are also expected to be on deck.

Clean energy and climate initiatives were marquee parts of last year’s address. This year, the president is likely to touch on the proposed greenhouse-emission rules for power plants, U.S. energy independence and growing oil and gas production, and the fast-clip growth in wind and solar power.

The Obama administration has threatened to veto two Republican-backed energy bills making their way through Congress.

The tussle is over a bill that would block Interior Department regulations on hydraulic fracturing on Federal and Indian lands, and another that would set timelines for drilling permits — and charge any protesters a fee.

The two bills are expected to pass in the House of Representatives but face an uphill battle in the Senate, where Democrats hold a majority.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries raised its forecasts for its crude-oil basket price and long-term world oil demand growth, according to the latest annual World Oil Outlook reported released by the cartel Thursday.

AFP/Getty Images

The report from OPEC, which provides a view on the world oil market from 2010 to 2035, said oil prices are forecast to “remain stable in the long run,” though its estimates are a bit higher than last year’s report. OPEC expects its nominal OPEC Reference Basket price (ORB) to average $110 a barrel over the period to 2020 and then rise to $160 by 2035.

In its 2012 report, OPEC had said it assumed that the ORB nominal price would average $100 a barrel over the medium term before rising with inflation to reach $120 by 2025 and $155 by 2035. The ORB is made up of a dozen different types of crude oils.

For the medium-term period of 2012-2018, demand is expected to increase by an average of 0.9 million barrels per day annually, reaching 94.4 million barrels per day by 2018, OPEC’s latest report said. In last year’s report, it projected demand of 92.9 million barrels a day by 2016.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto recently presented a bill to the nation’s congress proposing to open Mexico’s energy sector to private investment — effectively for the first time since 1938 when then-President Lazaro Cardenas nationalized the sector.

So what might happen if Mexico allows foreign investment in its energy sector?

“An opening up of the Mexico upstream would further cement the Americas as the most important source of supply growth in years to come,” said UBS analysts, led by Angie Sedita, in a note dated Monday.

From the services side, the opening of Mexico could be “extremely important,” they said. “The large oil companies would again tap into the expertise of both the oil service and contract drilling companies to partner and meet their production targets.”

And ultimately, Mexico could become a “sizeable market for the U.S. oil-service companies as well as the offshore drillers, the analysts said.

Exxon shares fell 1% Monday to $86.92. The skid began July 24, a week before the company released its disappointing second-quarter results, which merely accelerated the decline. Since July 23, Exxon shares have lost 8.6% of their value.

Phillips 66, spun off by ConocoPhillips
/quotes/zigman/294662/quotes/nls/copCOP last summer, won the top honors. The refiner returned $400 million to shareholders last year. And not bad for a newcomer — Phillips 66 was No. 4 in the Fortune 500 list released last week.

ConocoPhillips had been No. 4 last year, but without its refining operations, dropped to No. 45 this year.

Marathon, No. 33 in the overall list, won the No. 3 spot on the “spinoff success” list. Marathon Oil spun off Marathon Petroleum in June 2011.

The offer is expected for the second half of the year, and the new company would trade under the ticker PSXP, the company said in a statement. A price range and the number of shares have not been determined.

Analysts at Tudor Pickering Holt estimated earnings of $74 million for the new company, “starting small.”

Financial Times’ Ed Crooks has a piece worth reading on mounting opposition to U.S. liquefied natural gas exports. Some argue,for example, that if exports are allowed willy-nilly, the price of natural gas would skyrocket.

That controversy, Crooks writes, is one reason why the impact of the U.S. shale gas revolution in world markets is likely to be more muted that some may expect.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. said Monday it wants to sell $2.3 billion in senior notes to help fund a bond buyback.

The natural-gas producer said it would separate the bonds being sold into three series, maturing in 2016, 2021 and 2023.

Part of the proceeds will go to buy back notes due 2013 and 2018 — the company also announced the bond repurchase on Monday. Remaining proceeds will be used to redeem notes due 2019, and potentially others.

Peabody spun off Patriot in 2007. Patriot filed for bankruptcy in July.

Patriot on Thursday asked a bankruptcy court in St. Louis to let it modify contracts with United Mine Workers of America workers and end retiree health-care benefits, instead providing a trust fund.

On the same day, it filed a suit against Peabody, seeking a declaration from the bankruptcy court that any relief it would be able to obtain through court action would not relieve Peabody from its obligations to retirees that were transferred to Patriot.

About Energy Ticker

Energy Ticker is MarketWatch’s blog about the energy industry and investing in energy companies. It’s meant to serve as a guide for investors looking for the newest, most important and market moving news and information on the industry. Hosted by lead writer and veteran reporter Claudia Assis, Energy Ticker hopes to be the essential guide for those interested in the global business of powering our planet.